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Labour demands representation of workers on PIC board

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Wednesday, 18 October 2017 15:18

The Star reports that labour federations and unions on Tuesday set aside their differences and spoke with one voice in demanding worker representation on the board of the Public Investment Corporation (PIC).

The PIC invests the funds of the Government Employees Pension Fund (GEPF). During presentations to Parliament’s finance standing committee, labour also vehemently opposed the use of PIC funds to bail out ailing state-owned enterprises that have been bedevilled by charges of maladministration and corruption. Cosatu’s Matthew Parks said no decision could be allowed to be made about public servants’ pensions without the involvement and agreement of his federation and its unions. Fedusa general secretary Dennis George said public servants feared the PIC would be used for bailouts. “We demand a worker director on the PIC board,” George told MPs. The Public Servants Association’s (PSA’s) Tahir Maepa said fears about bailouts were well founded. Zwelinzima Vavi of the SA Federation of Trade Unions (Saftu) claimed there was a queue seeking to borrow from the PIC to bail out SOEs. He said: “This is the workers’ money. People to give such a mandate should be the workers.”